Six Pillars of Retirement Lifestyle

I've been doing the Rock Your Retirement show since April 2016.  I knew when I started the show that I wanted it to be about Retirement Lifestyle. I've been thinking about retirement myself and wanted to bring my listeners along my journey by interviewing people who have something to say that relates to this retirement lifestyle or Baby Boomer Lifestyle topic.

My husband is 20 years older than myself, so of course, we are in different stages of life.  But I wanted to be able to spend more time sharing experiences now, while he's still able to enjoy them.  I was scared.

What would I do with myself?

I'm only 52 as I write this, and I am used to the hustle and bustle of working.  And honestly, I don't have to work.  The thing is, I enjoy it.  I've been self-employed for the majority of my life, and enjoy the structure of working.  I don't enjoy a “boss” telling me what to do.  In fact, a two year period I tried leaving my business and working for someone else.  I failed miserably.

The good news is that I hadn't left my business completely, and when I came back it was there, along with my clients who hadn't left in my absence.  Of course, I was never really 100% gone.

Now I'm busy because although I did semi-retire from that business, giving up my license to sell securities, I still have about 30 beloved clients that I work with.  I don't know if I'll ever give that up.  As long as those clients want to work with me, I'll continue holding their hands through their financial retirement.

But I wasn't satisfied with just helping those 30, although I didn't want to take on any more clients in that industry.  So I started a new project.

That project was supposed to just keep me busy between October and December of every year, but it's really turned into more of a full-time job.  I DO enjoy it.  But I wish I could afford more help so that it didn't feel like a job to me.  It doesn't pay as well as my old business because it's new.

So why do I do it?

That's a good question.  We don't need the money.  I've done plan after plan for my husband and I, and the numbers always work out the same. We are fine.

Even when the stock market drops… we are still fine.

I think the reason why I keep doing it is that it fills a need in me, so as long as it does this, I'll keep going.  Occasionally I think about just saying, “That's it, I'm done!” and just put my business on autopilot and walk away.  But it's usually after a particularly difficult situation that was brought on by the client.  I don't get many of them because I seem to attract really great clients, but every now and then, someone enters my life that I'd rather not deal with.  Often I refer them to work with someone else, but sometimes it takes a while for them to leave, and they cause stress for my staff and me.

So what is it?

I've been thinking of this over time.  I think it's because there are six pillars of retirement lifestyle, baby boomer lifestyle really, and work for me is one of those pillars.  Sometimes we have a “pillar” that might be out of whack, and for me, I think it's work.  My work pillar has been taking up more space, and I'd like to work on the other five pillars.

What are the Six Pillars of Retirement Lifestyle?

 

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Spiritual

Whether you consider yourself an atheist, a Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or whatever, I believe that you have a spirit.  A soul.  Something that makes you different from the person sitting next to you.

There is an essence that is you.  You are connected to others through this essence.  I happen to believe in God and Jesus and every day I try to live in a way that is congruent to the way I believe. 

When we act differently from what we say we believe, we run into trouble.